Couple plans new life for historic property

Roger Stone and fianceé Brey Curley have big dreams. The couple, along with family and friends, including Roger Stone’s father Charles Stone IV, are renovating the Bondsville Road mansion, “Hearthstone.”

Where weather-beaten bare stone walls and a roofless former living space sit open to the elements, Stone and Curley envision a dream home.

“It needs just a little more work; we’re not ready to move in quite yet,” quipped Stone.

The couple, along with family and friends, including Roger Stone’s father Charles Stone IV, are renovating the Bondsville Road mansion, “Hearthstone.”

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The crumbling structure, dating in part to 1733, was a stop on the Underground Railroad and home to Bondsville Mill owner James Roberts during the mid-19th Century. The fabric mill to the southwest of Hearthstone was powered by Beaver Creek and produced uniforms for both the Civil and Second World wars.

Roger Stone said purchase of the 10-acre property from the Rothman Family is set for mid-December after supervisors granted final plan approval to subdivide at last week’s meeting. The township plans to create a park on the remainder of the 32-acre property.

Roger Stone’s great-, great-grandfather Charles “Doc” Stone II presented the home as a wedding gift to his son Charles Stone III and wife “Bunny” Stone in 1954. Charles Stone IV fondly remembers living in the home from 1954 to 1976 when the property changed hands. He is hard at work restoring the house — though not to how it was when he lived there — but to its original 18th Century grandeur.

“I want to give Roger and Brey a place with a lot of family history,” said Charles Stone IV.

Curley said renovating the home will combine the old with the new and she hopes to fulfill her soon to be father-in-law’s dream.

“We’re looking forward to the future and creating our own experiences with our family,” said Curley.

While Roger Stone owns Pennsylvania Lumber and Wood Products of Elverson and work will mostly be a family and friends affair, he estimated the project might take up to 10 years to complete, with a price tag of $450,000. Also on the property is a barn requiring a new roof at $75,000, ice and spring houses and a newly remodeled office and base of operations for the work.

Since starting work in July, Roger Stone removed much of the roof and is stabilizing the main walls of the three-story, 3,000-square-foot Chester County local fieldstone structure. The building was vacant and has been neglected since the mid-1990s.

Three existing fireplaces will remain and wood floors will add authenticity. Repointing and replacing mortar joints, and capping stone walls, are part of a long to-do list.

“My intention is to preserve the stone walls to 18th Century architecture — the earliest date of the building,” said Roger Stone. “It will be done with old-fashioned construction techniques, with a lot of attention paid to detail. We’re preserving 18th Century history with a modern touch.”

While Curley has been exploring and maintaining the grounds at the former estate many surprises were unearthed. She’s been removing unwanted vegetation and clearing Bunny Stone’s former flower beds.

“We’re finding treasures, toys and trinkets,” said Curley, who especially enjoyed discovering an overgrown footbridge spanning the raceway that powered the textile mill and was likely used by the mill owner to walk a quarter mile between home and work.

The couple pointed to the row homes and former general store located across Bondsville Road used by workers.

“It was almost like a mini-village,” said Curley about the complex and mill-associated structures.

When completed, Roger Stone intends to open up the property to public visitors for regular events.